Information economics in the Internet age

According to Upside magazine, the companies most likely to succeed in the Internet Age are ''small startups with innovative ideas and no baggage from existing lines of business.'' While the rapid and often chaotic development of the Internet has put a premium on innovation, many information companies have been succeeding in the online world. How have these companies maintained and, in many cases, grown their business lines? Not by refining information distribution technologies, but by refining and adding value to the information itself Although the media continues to focus on incremental improvements in data distribution, access and retrieval(e.g., the many articles about the browser battles between Microsoft and Netscape), the most important enhancements to researchers, and the ones that ultimately will determine success in cyberspace, are continual improvements in online content. This paper evaluates several business models used by successful online information providers and looks at issues such as Web-based access and transaction vs. subscription pricing policies from the researcher's point of view. It also profiles the business approaches of content providers and startup companies such as Amazon.com, PointCast, Yahoo and others.